Lyrics
(Melody by I.B. Woodbury, 1819-1858, Lyrics by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
1. Stars, stars of the summer night,
Far, far in yon azure deeps
Hide, hide your golden light,
She sleeps, my lady sleeps.
She sleeps, she sleeps, my lady sleeps.
2. Moon, moon of the summer night,
Far, far down yon western steeps
Sink, sink in silver light,
She sleeps, my lady sleeps.
She sleeps, she sleeps, my lady sleeps.
3. Wind, wind of the summer night,
Where yonder woodbine creeps,
Fold, fold thy pinnions light,
She sleeps, my lady sleeps.
She sleeps, she sleeps, my lady sleeps.
YouTube
- Song with chords in 2 keys (PDF)
- MIDI file
- Listen to the song
6 thoughts on “Stars of the Summer Night”
One evening, seventy-six years ago, a small boy, riding in the backseat of his parents’ car in Rochester, Minnesota, heard a choir sing “Stars of the Summer Night” on the radio. He was deliciously in love (most likely with his mother). This memory was triggered by watching a documentary last night on the history of the Mayo Clinic (Ken Burns). My father was a Fellow there from 1940-44. Thank you for providing the notes and the lyrics. I then accessed a choral recording, and heard the music for the second time at the age of eighty-one.
Great story! Thanks for sharing, Charles! Music has a way of bringing us back to special memories! – Beth
Thanks for sharing this music, poem.
I remember our late father reciting and singing this song to us. I was very young and could not easily understand the meaning and the wealth of it.
BACKGROUND
My father was born in the Northern Cape (South Africa) in a farm Sandrift in 1923. As his father was a farm worker, they later moved to Schmidtsdrift to their land.
In 1930 he started school in Schmidtsdrift being taught by the late teacher Swartz, who taught him the lyrics of this song.
I will preserve and cherish these good memories, because I was fortunate enough to have travelled the rest of Northern Cape together with him before he passed on in 1983.
That is a great story! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
After 50 years my sisters and I were blessed to be reunited with a foster sister as we were growing up. She had a 16m projector and film reel of all of us singing this song in 1958. Such delightful memories.
What a great story! Thanks for sharing!